Australia’s ‘app economy’ bigger than US and UK

July 31, 20144:56pm

Brisbane boys ... (From left) Luke Muscat, 24, Shainiel Deo, 35, and Phil Larsen, 24, are delighted at the popularity of there iPhone app
Fruit Ninja which is in the top 10 of apps around the world. Picture: Tim Marsden

Report author Dr Michael Mandel wrote that part of this growth “may be due to Australia finally catching up to other countries,” but said computer systems design made up a larger part of the Australian economy than in America.

“These figures all suggest that the digital sector may be a potential strength of the Australian economy,” Dr Mandel said.

By analysing job ads, Dr Mandel found 77,000 were employed in the app economy in New South Wales, 39,200 people in Victoria, and 10,000 in Queensland.

Surprisingly, both Melbourne and Sydney outperformed world capitals New York City, London and Chicago in their share of app economy jobs within all IT roles.

However, neither beat Silicon Valley in San Francisco, where app roles made up 17 per cent of all IT jobs.

PPI’s figures were backed by computing giant Apple today, which counted half the report’s figure as coming from iOS developers.

“The App Store has added more than 70,000 jobs to the Australian economy as our vibrant and diverse developer community grows, creating and selling more apps to customers around the world,” the statement said.